Contents of the late afternoon 5CD tray:

1) LFO -- Sheath. I sometimes wonder whether those who praised this album last year heard its predecessor, "Advance" (inasmuch as a record can be a "successor" to something after more than seven years. With Gaz leaving LFO for good, Mark keeping busy breathing techno-fied life into Bjork and Depeche Mode, it was more like coming out of retirement). "Advance" is louder, funkier and nastier than "Sheath". It's a sequence of rumbling, churning crescendos. In terms of speaker rattling bass quakes, it's also a no-contest. Other than "Blown", the astounding opener, "Sheath" generally doesn't hit those sorts of highs (at least that's one thing the albums have in common -- the best track comes first). It's an album of perfectly acceptable techno tracks such as "Mum-man", which build to something good and constantly threaten to explode into something wonderful, but they never do. Perhaps he was recording the real follow-up to "Advance" but the neighbours got tired of the noise and rebelled, forcing Mark Bell to strip away several layers from each track in order to finish the album.

In a sense, this makes it a sister album to Speedy J's "Public Energy", i.e. a techno-funk that's mostly lightning but without the thunder and hail (although in Speedy's case, he ended up getting it right with the follow-up, as opposed to the predecessor).

2. Xiu Xiu -- Fabulous Muscles. I've got it figured out -- if the stuff people said about Radiohead was actually true, then they'd sound like Xiu Xiu. Paranoia and self-loathing? Go home, Radiowimps, Xiu Xiu is the Colonel Kurtz of paranoia and self-loathing (RIP Marlon Brando). Xiu Xiu didn't just listen to a couple of Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada records and proceed to whine on top of his best approximation of them, he brought the window-cracking NOIZ and proceeded to whine and scream on top of three-dollar drum machines.

3. SFA -- Guerilla. I finally remembered to rewind from track 1 in order to hear the hidden track. It's a worthy prologue. Still a killer album. And as I lamented at the time, I remain exceedingly doubtful that they will ever top it. Short of one A++ single ("Juxtapozed With U", the pinnacle of their career, about which there are not enough words in the language nor hours in the day required to trumpet its greatness), they haven't come close.

4. System 7 -- s/t. A strong contender in the "early 90's techno album that hasn't dated well" sweepstakes. With The Orb, Hillage's guitar parts were far more remote in the mix. Like with all great dub, it would drift in and out, as if the guitar were just another sample. With S7, the guitar takes a prominent role, leaving us with guitar solo wankery plus a drum machine.

With a bit of post-production to freshen up the sound, "Strange Quotations" could probably be a radio hit today.

5. V/A -- LANding. (lots and lots of noise here)(Perhaps I'd say more about it if I could read the liner notes (in German)).